Till, Emmett Louis

Born: 1941 AD
Died: 1955 AD

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3.2 (64.15%) 53 votes

1941 – Born in Chicago, Illinois on the 25th of July. 1942 – Emmett’s mother largely raised him on her own; she and Louis Till had separated. 1955 – Till and his cousin were sent for a summer stay with Till’s great-uncle, Mose Wright, who lived in Money, Mississippi. – On the 24th of August, he joined other teenagers as they went to Bryant’s Grocery and Meat Market to get some candy and soda. – At about 12:30 a.m. on the 27th of August, Bryant and his half brother, J.W. Milam, kidnapped Emmett Till from his great-uncle’s house in the middle of the night. According to witnesses, they drove him to a weathered shed on a plantation in neighboring Sunflower County, where they brutally beat him. – The brothers were soon under official suspicion for the boy’s disappearance and were arrested August 29 after spending the night with relatives living in Ruleville, just miles away from the scene of the crime. – In an editorial on Friday, September 2, Greenville journalist Hodding Carter, Jr. asserted that "people who are guilty of this savage crime should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," a brave suggestion for any Mississippi newspaper editor to make, Carter included. – After Till’s severely damaged body was found, he was put into a pine box and nearly buried, but Mamie Till wanted the body to come back to Chicago. A Tutwiler mortuary assistant worked all night to prepare the body as best he could so that Mamie Till could bring Emmett’s body back to Chicago. – Emmett Till was buried September 6 in Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois. The same day, Bryant and Milam were indicted by a grand jury.